Home Made Amber Malt

[Tom McLean]

Does anyone toast/roast their own Amber Male?

If you do, what is your recipe?

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

I have malted my own 2 row or 6 row, bags weren't labeled, also roasted as a test and I will tell you roasting in an oven does not make crystal only roasted barley and if you've ever burnt popcorn the smell lingers for hours, well roasted grain lingers for weeks so don't roast too fast, your guess is as good as mine because I didn't ever get it right, got the malt right but not what your trying to do sorry

If I remember right the oven doesn't get low enough, I think you need 100 F or lower

 

[Tom McLean]

Paulmer, on page 246, has a set of oven temps and times for both soaked and dry malt. I soaked 2 lbs of American Pale ale for 1 hour then put it into the oven at 350 F for 1 1/2 hrs, stirring about every 15 min. It did not burn, so no smelled up kitchen. It came out in a range of colors from dark brown to tan, but it smells and tastes fine. Paulmer thinks we should let it breath for a couple of weeks. I plan to try it on some old world 80 \- Scottish Ale in two or three weeks.

There is a second recipe in “Designing Great Beers” on pg 282. This is a little more complicated.

The next time I will drain the grain for 15 min. in a strainer or on a towel, before I put it into the oven. When I did my batch yesterday, the drops of water on the bottom of the pan turned the grain and the pan dark brown.

Congratulations on doing your own malting! I would be afraid to even try that one.
Tom

 

[Ozarks Mountain Brewery]

yes the moisture is very important, its called crystal for a reason, the inside of the grain looks like a crystal when opened up and I think steam or condensation while roasting helps. not sure exactly how I did it; by accident once but don't remember the steps

by the way malting is very painstaking and takes 30 days even though the bag of grain was $13 my labor was huge, better to buy it for $40 lol

I have a electric turkey warmer with a lid, moistened the grain then let it roast for around 115, the condensation was all over it, took longer than I thought, thought I ruined it but after it dried in a couple of weeks came out crystal